AI & Sovereignty: Portugal launched “Amália,” its first open-source AI model for European Portuguese, with €5.5m EU recovery funding and plans for use in public services, education, defense support, and research—part of a broader push to reduce reliance on US tech giants. Youth & Safety: UNICEF reports 20 million children in 10 countries are already using AI, adopting it over three times faster than adults, while child-focused safeguards lag behind. Montenegro Tech & Society: A regional study on how social media platforms shape access to news across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Türkiye highlights how platform rules and recommendations increasingly decide what people see. Local Heritage: Montenegro’s “ancient” olive tree in Mirovica (Bar) is bearing fruit again after years of restorative work, with lab testing placing it around 2,250 years old. Energy Storage Boom: Battery energy storage projects are accelerating across Europe, including new deployments and investments in Poland and Romania as grids modernize. Public Safety: A Montenegro crew member helped save an infant choking on a grape during a cruise by using the correct under-one rescue protocol.